First Year In
It’s been about a year since I got serious with tech, so it just makes sense to document my journey and see how far I have come. Also, it’s my birthday (at the time of writing this), and reflecting on happenings from the previous one is a regular part of the day for me.
Before diving into my last 365 days, I want to tell you a little about me. I used to be a brand identity and graphic designer(Yeah, they are different roles, don’t argue); I’m a math major at the University of Ibadan; I am in my final year at the moment; I have a thing for music, and I play the Piano.
That said, grab a pack of potato chips and any drink from your refrigerator. It’s about to go down (lol).
Last 365 days
Let’s start with my last birthday, the 23rd of December 2021. It was a stressful day. I spent half of the day sorting my IT placement at The Industrial Training Coordinating Center (ITCC) in my school. I didn’t do anything after that; I just returned to my room and ate. Thanks to my roommate for adding a little spice to the day for me.
My birthday aside, I applied to many “get into tech” opportunities that month. Some required me to pass assessments, some required me to post videos on social media(please stop requiring this), and some were “requirementless.”
Then, voooooooom, December was over, and it was a new year already.
January was good. Some of the applications from December came through. I got the OONI of Ife & Utiva Scholarship, Udacity & ALX Scholarship, and Serenze Global Scholarship. I couldn’t do them all simultaneously, as they all had close time frames. So I had to let Serenze Global go and focus on Utiva and Udacity. I also did Free Code Camp alongside and got the responsive web design certification.
February came, and I finally built a project. It’s a mobile-only view of a fashion E-commerce landing page. Here’s a link: Westernrise. It was at this point I realized learning to code was more about building projects than just consuming tutorial content.
In March, I got into a hackathon with three friends; Seyi, AP, and Fola. We spent most of the month on that hackathon. We became finalists and made 4th position out of 28 teams. It was an outstanding experience for us. My group had a fantastic mentor, Oliver Cordingley, a serial entrepreneur in the UK. I also completed my course at Utiva this month.
In April, I started being active on Twitter and connected with Seyi, Kadet, Tobijudah, and others. It was mainly through Twitter Spaces. They gave me mad ginger that month. Their stories were very inspiring, and I got motivated.
May started, and I resumed building projects again. I built a time counter for the ASUU Strike that happened in Nigeria. Here’s a link: Timer App. I also built Medic Lab. I was quite active in the tech communities at my school, which led me to volunteer as a designer for an event organized by She Code Africa and GDSC. You can find out more here.
Just for documentation purposes, this was the month I started working out my body too.
In June, I kept on learning and built more projects. One was an implementation of a beautiful design by my friend, Fatima. She’s the best. Here’s the link: Muwa.
The other was a Quiz App. This was the point I fell in love with JavaScript and Programming as a whole. Seeing my friends interact with the app gave me goosebumps. They all sent screenshots of their scores, and we all laughed about it. It was a fun moment for everyone. It made me realize how much impact can be made with code. One can just sit down, face a screen, type lines of code, and voooooom; you’ve made an app that makes people’s moods brighter, makes communication faster, makes payment easier, makes purchases smooth, makes getting a ride almost effortless. Programming is worth falling in love with. Programming >>>>>> your “LOML”(lol)
This was the month I also passed my JavaScript certification test and got my certificate from Udacity.
July came and I started learning JavaScript properly with Traversy’s course. I recreated the website of grey finance and did all the DOM manipulation there. Here’s a link: Grey Finance. I also built a to-do list(Yes, every developer must build a to-do list). Here’s a link: To-do List
August was mostly tutorials, and I built an expense tracker app too. This was another exciting project because it was not part of a course or tutorial. I had to decide on the UI and UX from scratch. I posted it on my LinkedIn and got amazing feedback.
September was exciting. I collaborated on a creative project with Fatima again. What more can I say about her? She’s the best. Here’s a link to the project: Creative Project. I also worked on two other projects. One API project called Biphy and a GPA Calculator.
In October, I completed my JavaScript course and started learning React. I also built this Calorie Tracker app to practice Object Oriented Programming(OOP) with JavaScript. This was the month I resumed school too.
In November, I joined the HNG internship. I learned a lot about Git and improved my knowledge of React.js. I built Link Tree and RentNFT with React.js. I got my first web development gig around this time too. I had to leave HNG because I couldn’t combine it with the gig and had my test week in school.
And yeah, this is December. I attended Devfest Ibadan and GDSCUI Workshop, connected more with the people in the community, built this Country API App, and got my final year project topic. The topic is centered around “applying Linear Programming/Operation Research to optimization problems in smart homes/Internet of Things(IoT).” It’s been exciting so far, and I look forward to more excitement.
And it’s a wrap. 365 days well spent. I’m aware that there’s a lot more to learn, but I'm grateful for what I have achieved so far.
My year-in-review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning my developer friend, Akin. We’ve been friends since secondary school. He’s the one I run to when bugs attempt to end my life(lol). He helped me with countless resources. Thank you, Akin.
Outside Web Development
Here are a few highlights for me outside of becoming a front-end developer:
As I said earlier, I was a designer before transitioning into web dev. With my proficiency with software like Photoshop, Illustrator, Canva, and Filmora, I achieved a few things too. I explored Fiverr at some point and made my first dollar by designing logos. I got some gigs outside Fiverr, mostly from referrals and foreign clients from LinkedIn. I had a full-time remote position for a sports agency in Lagos for a while too.
For music, I have this yearly ritual of practicing newer piano pieces, releasing tracks, and making beats on FL studio, but I didn’t do any this year. I like to believe they were sacrifices to focus on tech. ( “so many sacrifices,” in Fireboy DML’s voice).
That’s about it. What’s next for me?
What Next?
The thought of learning newer technologies and building more interesting projects is exciting. So, I look forward to that.
I’m also about to get into my final semester, and I’ll be offering very few courses. I’m now ready to do a full-time remote position without fear of combining school and work. So, I’m open to front-end roles if you have any for me.
That’s about it. I’m just looking forward to learning and working in an environment that aids growth.
Thank you for reading my year-in-review. Check again next year, and I’ll probably be at Microsoft.
